I'm sorry for the semi-late upload. The Thanksgiving weekend was hectic for me. T.T And there's also the fact that I've started developing a small case of writer's block.

Oh, and congrats to the fnaf community here. Over 1000 stories... wow, just wow.

"Kid, you okay?"

Mike gripped the tablet tighter. His fingers were bone white, and he knew his face had to be even whiter. He refused to take his eyes off his watch which said it was half past six though. He was too scared to even look up.

"Hey, you need to get home." Two hands help break him out of his trance and Mike felt his heart start hammering in his chest. He was sick with relief. An elderly woman firmly led him from the office towards the exit, that glorious, perfect exit. Mike wanted to say thank you, but he could hardly keep his feet underneath him.

The elderly woman stopped him and gave him a hard look. "Are you going to pass out?"

Mike slowly shook his head.

Her stare hardened even farther. "Then I need you to snap out of it. Okay? Did you drive here, or do you have a ride."

Mike voice sounded oddly flat to him. "I drove here."

He stumbled forward when the woman pulled him through the door and had him sit down on a bench outside. The sun did little to warm his numb hands, but it felt good on his face. The woman disappeared and Mike stared at his hands. They were trembling every so often and he couldn't stop them.

The lady appeared again a glass in her hands "Drink this."

Mike did. Instantly the slightly sharp taste of alcohol invaded his senses and he coughed, but he managed to drain it. Whatever it was caused his throat to burn and his stomach to bloom with unexpected – but not unwanted – warmth.

The sound of traffic finally made sense to him and he handed the glass to the lady stumbling towards his car.

"Congratulations…" He heard the lady mumble.

He didn't listen to her as his stumbled turned into a fast walk. Whatever she had given him was helping tremendously with the cold that seemed to try and leech the life out of him, but he felt sick.

His head spun with flashbacks of the night as he drove home. The phone call… the eyes… the fear… the animatronics… those eyes…

Mike screeched into the parking lot. He barely noticed that his parent's cars were gone as he threw himself out of the car not even caring to close the door. His stomach churned, and he was slick with sweat as he burst into the bathroom.

The next thing he knew he was laying on the ground next to the toilet with his throat burning and his body trembling.

It was stupid, it wasn't manly, but he couldn't stop the tears as they fell.

After a few minutes of self-pity, Mike forced himself to move. He still felt sick, unsteady on his feet, but he couldn't leave the front door wide open. The neighbors must think he's already crazy.

Leaning against the door after he closed it, Mike rubbed his face furiously, trying to keep himself alert instead of falling back into that shock the lady had managed to pull him out of. His stomach twisted and he took a deep breath.

His phone suddenly rang in his pocket and Mike jumped at the noise. Fishing it out, he answered it. "Hullo?"

"Hello Mike, how'd your first night go?" The chipper voice of Mr. Ryland came through the phone.

Mike's knees gave out on him and he slid down the door. His back felt icy. "H-Hey Mr. Ryland. I-I don't think I can work t-there anymore."

A sigh came from the other side of the phone. "Look Schmidt, you seem like a sturdy young man. I would have thought you could handle something like this. Sure it's hard, but it's not impossible. Are you saying you can't handle it?"

Mike shook his head fighting the tears that threatened to spill from his eyes. Ryland didn't know what he had just gone through… "I'm not saying I can't handle it. I-I-I don't want to handle it. Did you know what those animatronics do at night?!"

"Of course."

Mike was at a loss of words. "Y-You knew and… you just let me waltz in there with no idea about what was happening?!"

"Now Mike-"

"I quit," Mike spat his fear quickly turning into anger. He refused to spend another moment in that damned place!

"Then I assume you have video evidence as to why?" Ryland's said.

"I don't need any fucking evidence!"

"Afraid you can't do that. I have you on a contract. Unless you have fifteen thousand just lying around?"

Mike's anger dissolved back into dread as he realized just what he had done. He had read the contract, now all the strange things that hadn't made sense on it were crystal clear. It was all set up that way…

"Or perhaps you have some evidence? It would have to be video of course, audio can be so… misleading."

"Don't you have feed from the security cameras?" Mike asked.

"Unfortunately it all becomes manual when we switch to the night power. There's no recording on what happens at night there. We place a lot of trust into our night guards, which is one of the reasons for the fifteen thousand dollars."

"I expect you here before twelve tonight, or you can expect to see me at your house for the payment tomorrow morning." Ryland curtly said after a moment of silence before the line went dead. An icy feeling settled on his back…

With a gasp Mike jerked to the side, falling off the mattress.

He had fallen asleep on top of the covers and his back was nearly numb. Shivering, Mike crawled underneath his half of the covers and tried to fall back asleep. The silence though coupled with the nightmare was just too much and he rolled over to face the ceiling.

Besides him Alisha was a huddled form buried underneath the covers, and he listened to her steady breathing, hoping it would lull him to sleep.

Instead, he found himself wondering about his parents. Were they okay? The government had initiated a countrywide lockdown, and his parents were generally law-abiding people. Were they still at their house? Or had they left as soon as they could?

He tried to not think about them… dead. In all honesty they probably were dead. His mom was pushing sixty while his dad was sixty-four. His mom went grocery shopping every week. They had to have run out of food and water right?

What about his friends? Sure he didn't have very many, but he was close with a few of them. Were they alive?

Mike sat up and rubbed his face, ridding himself of the thoughts. With no idea what time it was he headed towards the office. One would think that there would be multiple clocks in a place like this, but that wasn't the case. There was only one and it was located in the office. The stupid tablet.

Mike shuddered as he quickly made his way through the boxes and down the dark hallway. At night everything here looked so… sinister. The dirty walls looked blood splattered and the posters grew freaky. It reminded him of his week working here.

He entered the office and quickly shut the doors. An uneasy feeling overcame him as he noticed just how quiet it was. Examining the office he realized just how messy it was. He had never cleaned it after his little 'breakdown' and the fan, along with several other things that normally sat on the desk were scattered on the floor.

Not liking the silence, Mike made short work of picking up everything and turning the fan back on. The little thing stuttered for a minute, but eventually it kicked on. He found the tablet with a cracked screen sitting underneath the desk and he flicked it on to find himself looking through a security camera.

Startled, he glanced down to the corner of the screen to see the battery icon and a power percentage steadily dropping. He looked into the other corner expecting to see a time, but instead he saw a pixelated white face.

Mike took a deep breath and shook his head. There was something innately wrong with that.

He began going through the different cameras. He saw a dark closet, a box filled dining room, a dimly lit hallway, bathrooms… His fingers hovered over the icon of the spare-parts room, but he skipped over it instead going to look backstage. It was a little unnerving to see no animatronics in the feed and he instantly checked either side of the office.

When he didn't see anything, Mike shakily reprimanded himself. Freddy and them weren't after him. He was just psyching himself out. But then again, where were they?

Rubbing his arms, Mike spun the cupcake so it was facing the wall and checked to see that he still had over fifty percent of his power. He had to stop himself from checking the hallways again.

When he looked down to his hands were trembling slightly he growled and balled them into fists.

He was not going to freak out! He just needed to get ahold of himself. There were no animatronics after him. He wasn't going to die… His heart continued to try and beat out of his chest as if it were trying to warn him of some impending doom, and his resolve slowly faded. No matter what he said to himself, it still felt like he was going to die… like he was going to get stuffed into a suit…

Mike jerked back violently when a golden form of Freddy suddenly appeared on the desk, a bloody macabre grin on its slouched face. He threw the chair in its direction and backed up into the corner. Dread coiled in his stomach when instead of disappearing like it usually did, the golden suit stayed and caught the chair with one hand.

Its head slowly turned in his direction and black eyes staring straight at him.

"No…" Mike heard himself saying as it fell face first onto the floor with a loud clank. "No… stay away!"

A wheezing came from the gold Freddy as a pawed hand reached forward to drag it towards Mike. The whole body spasmed as it moved forward. Another hand came up, dragging it closer.

"Stay away!" Mike shouted.

It paused, regarding him, and Mike squeezed his eyes shut. He could hear it drag itself again. Closer… and closer… and closer…

Then silence.

Mike trembled in the corner, refusing to open his eyes. He knew it was right there, probably a few inches from him. He could hear a quiet, labored breathing.

Seconds stretched into minutes and Mike still didn't open his eyes. The smell of something rotten hit him making him gag, and something wet touched him. He froze when a childlike giggle came from right in front of him, feeling the wet point trace leisurely up his arm. The wet feeling traveled to his chest and began moving back and forth.

He felt numb wherever it touched and he started shaking from the fear and coldness. It felt like his mouth was glued together, and he was unable scream like he wanted to. He sat there, feeling the wet point remain there a moment longer before it vanished.

A sharp pain suddenly came from where it had started on his arm making Mike hiss and open his eyes. An empty office greeted him and he went to rub where the pain was. The cause of the pain was a cut. When Mike pulled his hand away to see it was wet with blood and something black.

Mike looked down and saw felt his blood freeze when he saw his arm and chest covered in a black mark. The line following whatever had touched him, to create something on his chest. He grabbed the tablet and looked at himself in the reflection.

"Mine."

It was sprawled in black on his chest.

Horrified Mike stumbled upright to leave and turned to be face to face with Golden Freddy.

The golden bear screamed.

Mike jerked upright.

Looking around dazed, Mike frantically checked his chest to see it blank. The blankets were bunched at the foot of the mattress and Alisha was nowhere to be seen. Through the boxes he could hear Foxy talking animatedly from the stage, probably telling Alisha another story.

It had been just a dream.

Sighing in relief Mike ran a hand through his black hair and winced when his arm stung. He looked to see a strange cut there.

Mike stood and moved to the bathrooms that were just on the other side of a few boxes. He washed the blood off of his arm and splashed some water on his face. Glancing up he saw his reflection stared back at him from the mirror. Hazel eyes greeted his own and he shook his head.

Turning he headed towards the stage to find Alisha.

He found her sitting at the foot of the stage watching Foxy as the animatronic told another story. Yawning, Mike sat against the boxes and observed them both. As he sat there, his nightmare came back to him and shuddered. He supposed he should eventually ask the animatronics about the 'Golden Freddy'. It was either another piece of an unsolvable puzzle or he was going crazy.

He snorted. Crazy. Why did he even use that word?

He yawned again as he watched the pirate fox fight a one man sword fight, going back and forth quickly. His dream was already fading from his mind. He was still confused on where the cut had come from, but it was probably from all the rolling around he did last night. There must be something sharp besides the mattress. He would just need to find it later.

Laughing, the fox did a finishing blow and turned to Alisha with his yellow eyes flashing. Those eyes flickered up to look at him for a minute and Mike felt cold.

Sitting up straighter, Mike watched Foxy go back to his story. He would have thought that by now he would be at least partially used to the animatronics, but he wasn't. The only reason he had done so well so far was because of his medication.

Forcing himself to relax, Mike sat back and idly began drumming his fingers against his knees. He needed to get over it, his fear of the animatronics, fast. His medication wasn't going to last forever and when he ran out he would have to deal with his fear and withdrawal.

Mike frowned at the thought. That wasn't going to be fun.

While his medication did wonders to calm him down and keep him calm, it was an addictive drug. His therapist – she had told him to call her a psychiatrist but he knew she was a therapist – had warned him about the possibility of getting addicted. But by that time the panic attacks were so frequent that he had decided to risk it.

"Good morning Mike,"

Pulled from his musing, Mike looked up to see Chika standing there somewhat shyly. The appearance of the bird startled him and he had to remind himself to remain calm. "Morning Chika."

The yellow animatronic shuffled from foot to foot, her eyes staring resolutely at a box. "So… I was wondering when you were going to start teaching Alisha… because I got the kitchen set up for it for whenever you want to."

Mike remembered what he had said the day before and he sighed, gingerly touching the cut on his arm. If he was going to teach her, it would need to be before lunch and her nap.

"I'll probably do it soon," Mike said working his way to his feet.

While Chika vanished, Mike walked to Alisha and sat down next to her. Foxy had run to his cove. "Did you get breakfast?" He asked her.

She nodded, "Chika made funny pancakes." She said.

Mike raised an eyebrow at that. "Funny pancakes?"

"Yeah, she dropped something into it. But the syrup made it better."

Mike's stomach growled and he patted her on the shoulder. "I might have to grab one of those. I'll be right back."

Alisha giggled at that and Foxy emerged from Pirates cove with a foam sword prop. "I knew it be somewhere in there," He said proudly showing it off. He gave Mike a smile. "Mornin' Mike,"

"Morning," Mike said as he stood up. He looked between Foxy and Alisha for a moment, unsure if he should leave Alisha alone with the pirate.

Alisha was already alone with him when you woke up, he told himself. Taking a deep breath, Mike turned and walked quickly towards the kitchen. Trust…

When he walked into the kitchen, he looked around in disbelief. It looked like the place had gotten trashed by a hurricane. The table was covered in paper and rest of the room was splattered in batter and other food items. Dishes were stacked on the counter and a plate of pancakes sat to the side.

Hesitantly, Mike picked one up. He was suspicious of the bulges and yellow streaks, and he carefully nibbled an edge. "Pineapple?" He made a face when he tasted a bit of the yellow and promptly spit it into the sink. "Nope, mustard."

He discretely threw the pile away and began cleaning. The sun shone through the skylight and he couldn't tell if it was early in the morning, or late evening. After he cleaned the dishes and wiped off most of the batter – he refused to clean the walls above his head – Mike grabbed an apple from the cooler.

Sitting down at the table Mike beheld the mass of paper, pens, and crayons scattered on its surface. Is this what Chika meant when she said she got the kitchen set up?

He got his answer when Chika entered the kitchen with another armful of paper. "So what do you think?" She asked setting the paper down. "Do you think I got enough? I could go get more if you need me too."

Mike was a little taken back by her eagerness, but he quickly shook his head. "No… this is plenty."

"Great!" She said. "I'll go get Alisha then."

Before Mike could say anything, Chika was gone.

He stared at the door where she had vanished and shook his head. It looked like he was going to start teaching Alisha, whether he was ready or not.

The sound of footfall came from the doorway and an instant later Alisha and Chika entered. Both looked excited and Alisha jumped onto the stool next to him while Chika sat to the side.

"Chika said you're ready to teach us to read," Alisha said happily. She looked at the paper and writing utensils in front of her and her grin widened.

"Yeah I am," Mike said eying the yellow animatronic who looked back innocently at him. He sighed and set the uneaten apple to the side. "I just want you to know I'm probably not going to be a very good teacher. I don't really know how to do this."

"I think you're a great teacher," Alisha said. She pulled a piece of paper and a green crayon to her. "So how do we read?"

"Hold on, we're starting out easy," Mike said. "Do you know you're ABC's?"

"Yes," Alisha nodded.

"And… do you?" Mike asked Chika.

"Do you mean that song?" Chika asked. "The one that goes: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O-"

"Yes, that one," Mike interrupted. "Do you guys know how to write your ABC's?" Both of them shook their heads and Mike grabbed some paper of his own. Spotting a sharpie, he wrote two large A's, one uppercase and one lowercase. "Then we'll start with the first letter. This is the letter A-"

Mike paused as the door opened and Foxy and Freddy filed in. Foxy looked a little miffed about something while Freddy sheepishly waved his paw, "Sorry, we didn't mean to stop you. Keep going."

"T-This is the letter A," Mike uncertainly continued. He watched them as they took up the stools on the other side of the table and shifted slightly so that everyone could see. The fact that he was teaching the animatronics was absurd. "Um… This is an uppercase or a big A, and this is a lowercase or a little A. I want you to write them both ten times on your paper."

Chika and Alisha promptly began copying his letter, while Foxy folded his arms and glared at the far wall. Freddy nudged him, holding a piece of paper. "Come on, you said you would."

"Fine!" Foxy scowled and snatched the paper out of Freddy's hand before grabbing a crayon. "But, ya' owe me." The small thing snapped in his hand and he growled reaching for another. With a smile Freddy grabbed some paper for himself.

Slightly confused about what he had just witnessed, Mike tried not to think about it and began writing the next letter. He looked up though when Freddy stood up and made his way around the table towards him.

"Here," Freddy said setting down a filled out paper. "Are we doing this for the whole alphabet?"

Mike remembered that it was Freddy that had written the note and he glanced up at the bear. "We were, but I don't think you need to."

"It's fine," Freddy said. "It's a lot more fun than I remembered and it'll be good practice. I haven't written in forever." He turned to leave, but his eyes suddenly locked on him and he froze.

"What?" Mike asked, after an uncomfortable moment of Freddy staring at him.

"W-Where did you get that cut?" Freddy asked.

The nightmare flashed through his mind and Mike shivered. He glanced down at his arm. "I don't know."

Freddy's eyes suddenly turned darker and he grabbed Mike by the arm pulling him out of the kitchen. Fear instantaneously bubbled through his chest and Mike struggled to free his arm. Chika, Foxy, and Alisha all looked confused as he was dragged through the doorway.

Mike for his part suddenly felt terrified. "Hey, let go!" Freddy's darker eyes reminded him of the Golden animatronic.

Once they were in the hallway Freddy let go of him and Mike backed up several steps.

"I'm only going to ask you this once. Where. Did. You. Get. That. Cut." Each word that came from Freddy sounded warped. His synthetic voice was darker and more menacing.

Mike backed up into a pile of boxes and flinched when Freddy took a step towards him. "I don't know! I just woke up this morning and I had it, I swear!" His heart leapt into his throat when Freddy closed the distance between them and grabbed the cut arm again, inspecting it. The towering animatronic scowled.

Seeming to find whatever he was looking for, Freddy let go and began walking briskly back towards the kitchen.

"Foxy, Chika! Come on!" Freddy commanded with his voice still seemed darker. He turned to regard Mike. "You and Alisha stay in the kitchen. We have to take care of something." The two animatronics seemed to pick up on something as they both hurriedly followed Freddy as he headed towards the other hallway.

Mike ran into the kitchen and Alisha gave him a worried look. "What wrong?"

"I don't know," Mike answered. His mouth felt a little dry and his heart was still pounding. He hadn't yet taken the medication today and he was feeling it.

Mike looked at his cut. The thin line went halfway around his arm. It was strange, but the way Freddy had reacted made him a more than a little concerned. What was so wrong with it? WHy had he acted the way he had? Mike was starting to doubt his theory about just rolling on something sharp in his sleep.

His thoughts were cut short when he heard the heart-stopping scream that the animatronics gave.

"Mike! Alisha?" A heavy thudding sounded from right outside the kitchen and Bonnie burst in. His eyes frantically landed onto Mike and Alisha and he settled down somewhat.

"Is he in there?" Freddy shouted bursting into the room as well. He seemed to calm down slightly as well.

Mike fear and concern only grew when he heard Chika screech from somewhere in the pizzeria. An instant later the sound of something heavy falling echoed through the halls. "What's going on?" He asked.

"Keep them safe," Freddy said to Bonnie before he ran back out into the hallway.

Mike heard another crash followed by Chika shrieking. "I'm going to tear you apart you little freak!"

"Keep us safe from what?" Mike asked Bonnie. The purple animatronic's only response was to slam the door shut and begin piling boxes in front of it, listen intently.

To Mike, it sounded as if a train was going through the place. A terrifying, screeching, glass-breaking, thudding, shouting train. He heard boxes fall over and the other three animatronics run around doing who knows what. He was literally starting to panic listening to everything that seemed to be going on outside the kitchen and he waved an arm at Bonnie. "Hello? Keep us safe from what?"

"Not now," Bonnie shushed him.

"Mike I don't like this…" Alisha said, sounding scared.

The ex-night guard stared at Bonnie incredulously. "What do you mean not now? It sounds like a tornado is tearing the place up out there. I need to know what's going on! Why do you need to protect us? What's out there? Why did Freddy freak out over my cut arm?"

"Shut up!" Bonnie snapped, his red eyes glowing briefly before returning to normal. It worked in silencing Mike – who was temporarily reminded of staring at those same eyes through a dark doorway – and Bonnie returned his attention to listening through the door.

"Mike, I'm scared." Alisha said scooting over until she was pressing against him.

Mike absent mindedly patted her shoulder as he focused on listening to what was going on past the kitchen door. He felt his chest thump with his frantic heartbeat and tried to slow it down.

"Where'd he go?"

"Ya' lost him!"

"I didn't lose him, I never had him to begin with!"

"Guys shut up,"

Freddy's voice suddenly came from right on the other side of the door, making Mike jump. "Are you guys okay in there?"

"We're fine," Bonnie said through the door. "Is he still on the loose?"

"Yes, don't worry we'll find him soon."

Mike ran an agitated hand through his hair. He was starting to get tired of not knowing what was happening. All he had ever been getting here was more and more questions. Besides him Alisha worriedly messed with a crayon and glanced up at Bonnie.

"Bunny what's happening?"

Bonnie must have sensed the fear in Alisha's voice because he said as softly as he could. "It's nothing Alisha. We're just going to hang out in here, until they finished catching something."

"What?" Mike asked.

Bonnie gave him a pointed look and returned attention to the door. Mike sat down at the table feeling a mix of frustrated, confused, and scared. He jumped again when Bonnie suddenly spun around and took several steps towards them.

Mike looked behind him, half expecting something to be standing in the shadows, but there was nothing and he turned back towards Bonnie. "What-"

"Shhh!" Bonnie held up a paw. "Do you hear that?"

Mike was about to retort with a 'no' when he paused. There was something. He heard a very dull thud followed by a wild scratching that was quickly growing louder. A sense of dread swept through him as he realized it was coming from the air duct above them.

"Shit!" Bonnie swore, throwing the boxes he had stacked in front of the door to the side. "Freddy! Foxy! Chika!"

The scratching grew louder and Mike found himself backing up towards Bonnie with Alisha, never taking his eyes off the vents lining the duct. "What, is that?" He asked as something bright darted over one of the vents.

Bonnie struggled to open the door behind the two humans and Mike watched in mute horror a vent fell to the floor with a clatter. The sound of the other three animatronics approaching caused Mike to glance at the door for a split-second and Alisha screamed.

Spinning around, Mike only had time to blink as something small came hurtling towards him.